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I’m a Reader (Associate Professor) in Comparative Politics at the University of Bath. Since January 2016, I have been an ESRC Future Research Leaders grant holder, and I took up a Visiting Fellowship at the Library of Congress, Washington D.C. through the AHRC International Placement Scheme in 2016/7. You can read about my project here. My first book, provisionally titled The Political Class: Why It Matters Who Our Politicians Are, is under contract with OUP with a provisional release date of April 2018. You can pre-order a copy here.

My research is currently funded by the ESRC and British Academy. I am interested in a lot of areas related to political representation. My PhD focused on whether what MPs did before they entered Parliament affected their career trajectories once they were elected (it does). I’ve also looked at whether women are less politically ambitious than men (they are), and whether women elected via gender quotas are any different to other politicians (they aren’t). I’m currently working on papers that look at the impact of gender quotas on support for women as political leaders (they help) and whether holding political office is what philosophers call a ‘transformative experience’ (I think it is). Finally, I’m also interested in how personality might affect political behaviour and how ‘normal people’ understand what counts as political representation.

About me

I am a Reader (Associate Professor) in Comparative Politics at the University of Bath. My research focuses on political representation and broader issues in political behaviour.